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Space agencies involved in the International Space Station (ISS) plan to embark on the first experimental year-long endurance mission in March 2015.

ISS is a joint programme between five space agencies including NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Japanese JAXA, the ESA, and the Canadian CSA.

Russia Federal Space Agency Roscosmos manned space missions chief Alexei Krasnov was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying that a basic decision on the mission has been made but the formalities were yet to be discussed.

"If the mission proves to be effective, we will discuss sending year-long missions to ISS on a permanent basis," Krasnov said.

The two-person expedition, with a Russian cosmonaut and a NASA astronaut, will be twice as long as typical six-month trips.

"If the mission proves to be effective, we will discuss sending year-long missions to ISS on a permanent basis."

The expedition will help the members determine the practicality of implementing year-long missions and ready the scientists for future manned missions to Mars and further.

In the past, attempts have been made to understand the long-term physiological and physiological effects of spaceflight on the human body.

Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov spent nearly 438 consecutive days in space aboard the Mir Space Station, from January 1994 to March 1995.

Six volunteers from Russia, Europe and China completed the Mars 500 experiment in 2011, spending 520 days in a simulated environment.

The orbiting laboratory has been in space for the last 11 years, breaking the previous record of ten years held by Russia’s Mir programme.

The three-member Expedition 33 crew currently at ISS will soon be joined by three more from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Image: The year-long endurance mission at ISS will enable scientists to observe long-term effects of spaceflight beyond the existing reports. Photo: courtesy of NASA.